Ohio police chief Robect Hickman (left) says his Confederate vest is not racist. But his like can't explain why the Confederate flag is so popular among white supremacists and ex-KKK leaders like David Duke (right).

By YBW
An Ohio police chief is defending himself after pictures of him wearing a Confederate flag vest were made public.

Police Chief Robert Hickman from Port Clinton, Ohio insists that the flag is not a racist symbol.

“I do not look at the Confederate flag as a racist symbol,” Hickman stated.

The pictures were reportedly posted on the chief’s Facebook page in July and were taken while he was on vacation.

According to local affiliate WKYC, the people they interviewed were not bothered by the chief’s Confederate flag shirt either.

“There are likely very few Americans who don’t understand that symbol,” Jim Jackson, president of the Sandusky, Ohio, chapter of the NAACP, told the Sandusky Register. “You can’t be ignorant because every individual in America understands what that flag means.”

Also, the photo shows Hickman’s wife, a city council candidate, flashing a middle finger in one of the photos.

In an email sent to the Register, she declined to comment.

“I will not discuss my personal Facebook page, which has a privacy setting for my friends only,” Hickman said.